AGENTS.md Review Guide

This document is a repeatable review guide for changes to AGENTS.md and related agent runbooks. Normative requirements (MUST/SHOULD/MAY/MUST NOT) remain in root AGENTS.md.

When to Use

Run this guide before merging changes to:

• AGENTS.md
• Any added/updated/removed agent-facing docs under docs/agents/

Document Boundaries (Source of Truth)

• AGENTS.md: policy and contract (normative behavior).
• docs/agents/: supporting runbooks, indexes, and review checklists (for example architecture index and testing flow).

Review gate:

• Any new MUST/SHOULD/MAY/MUST NOT policy lives in AGENTS.md first.
• Supporting docs only explain or exemplify policy; they do not introduce new policy scope.
• Normative keywords keep a consistent style (MUST/SHOULD/MAY/MUST NOT are not wrapped in backticks).

Review Workflow

1) Precedence and Scope

• Confirm precedence wording remains clear (MUST/SHOULD/MAY, root-first precedence).
• If subtree-specific guidance is added, ensure it does not conflict with root AGENTS.md.

2) Structure and Duplication

• AGENTS.md remains concise: policy-focused, not overloaded with step-by-step runbook detail.
• Detailed workflows are linked from AGENTS.md to docs/agents/* instead of copied inline.
• Policy statements are not duplicated across sections or docs; keep one source-of-truth line and reference it elsewhere if needed.
• No duplicated checklist documents with overlapping normative rules.

3) High-Risk Policy Gates

Validate these first because they caused prior drift/regressions:

• Bazel metadata rule is explicit and unambiguous (no ambiguous wildcard wording).
• PR requirements include the Issue Number: line with close #<id> or ref #<id>.
• Notes update policy is consistent between docs/agents/notes-guide.md and planner notes.
• Testing policy in AGENTS.md matches testing runbook guidance under docs/agents/ (no contradiction).

4) Testing and Validation Consistency

• Task -> Validation Matrix still defines minimal required test surfaces by change scope.
• Testing Policy remains policy-level and points to command playbooks under docs/agents/.
• RealTiKV rule still requires background start and mandatory cleanup.
• Bug-fix policy still requires regression tests with fail-before-fix/pass-after-fix evidence (or explicit infeasibility note).

5) PR/Issue Policy Consistency

• PR title format rules are intact.
• PR description still requires .github/pull_request_template.md.
• HTML comment preservation requirement remains intact.
• English language requirement remains intact for issues and PRs.

6) Reference and Path Hygiene

• Every mentioned path exists.
• Removed files are not referenced anywhere.
• Cross-links between AGENTS.md and docs under docs/agents/ remain valid.
• Shell snippets are copy-paste safe (especially quoted patterns containing backticks).
• Any make <target> mention in docs is verified against Makefile.
• Related examples stay parameter-consistent across snippets.

Fast Verification Commands

Use from repository root.

# Check critical policy anchors in AGENTS.md
grep -n "Issue Number:" AGENTS.md
grep -n "Task -> Validation Matrix\|Testing Policy\|make bazel_prepare" AGENTS.md

# Ensure normative keywords are not wrapped in backticks in policy docs.
rg -n -P '\x60(MUST(?: NOT)?|SHOULD|MAY)\x60' AGENTS.md docs/agents/agents-review-guide.md

# Check cross-doc source-of-truth boundaries in docs/agents/
grep -R -n 'root `AGENTS.md`' --include="*.md" docs/agents

# Ensure deleted/renamed paths in this change are not referenced in Markdown docs.
# Replace <base_ref> with the PR base branch if needed.
git diff --name-status <base_ref>...HEAD | \
  awk '$1=="D"{print $2} $1 ~ /^R[0-9]*/{print $2}' | \
  while read -r old_path; do
    [ -n "${old_path}" ] && rg -n --fixed-strings "${old_path}" --glob '*.md' . || true
  done

Acceptance Criteria for AGENTS-related Changes

A review is complete only when all are true:

• No policy contradiction across AGENTS.md and the changed docs under docs/agents/.
• No ambiguous wording for critical rules (especially test/build and PR gates).
• No stale path references.
• AGENTS.md preserves policy-level clarity and does not re-accumulate large runbook detail.
• Final review comment includes concrete evidence (paths and exact commands run).

Reviewer Output Template

Use this summary format in review comments:

1. Files reviewed.
2. Drift/contradiction findings.
3. Commands run to verify references/rules.
4. Required fixes before merge.
5. Optional follow-ups (non-blocking).